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Jesus, the Hope of the World 








Primary Folks at 
Mission Study 


By Viola Eisenbise 

»» 



I must be in the things of my Father —Jesus 







Copyright, 1920 
by 

General Mission Board 


MR 10 1921 
©CU608837 


^ ( 


FOREWORD 

This book is written with the desire that the chil¬ 
dren who are beginners in the study of missions may 
find material suited to their needs and that this will 
only be a beginning in their life-long study of Christian 
missions. The books should be used in a manner that 
will be most helpful for the children. To some the 
stories should be read, while others may be able to 
make their own study. This book is written and pub¬ 
lished gladly for the blessing it may be for those who 
are soon to be the leaders in Christian thought. 






Contents 

Chapter Page 

I. The Black Children and Their Friend, the 
White Man, . 7 

II. The Chinese People, .15 

III. India, the Land of Idols, .23 

IV. Some Who Loved God and Taught Others to 

Love Him,.31 

V. Children Who Live in Our Cities,.3 7 

VI. How the Poor Children Are Made Happy, ... .45 










The Trees Have Been Cut Away and This Grass Hut Built in This 
Open Space. Pedro Enjoys This Kind of a Home 
for He Knows of No Other 







CHAPTER I 


The Black Children, and Their Friend, the 
White Man 

I wish we might go to Pedro’s home, but we would 
have to go such a long, long way on the train and then 
on the ship before we would even reach the country 
where he lives, for he lives in Africa. We would then 
have to walk a great many miles through the jungles, 
for there are no trains to take us. Pedro lives in the 
strangest house. It is not made of bricks or stones or 
boards, as our houses are, but it is made of poles and 
leaves and grass. It is a very warm country, and they 
do not have to have warm houses as we have, but they 
must have good thick roofs on them to keep out the 
hot sun. 

Pedro’s father cut away some of the large trees and 
the shrubbery to make a place for their home. This is 
just a small place, and all around them is the dense 
forest in which many wild animals live. The father 
often goes into the forest and finds the rubber trees 
and cuts a gash in them and hangs a bucket under the 
gash, and the next morning when he goes to get it it 
has a sap in it from which they make rubber. As the 
children grow older they, too, go, but they are taught 
to watch carefully for wild animals. 

Sometimes these dark children are so happy, for 


7 


8 


Primary Folks 


they love to hear their father tell how he has helped 
the men of the village to capture a large elephant, 
which they are going to train to do heavy work for 
them or how they have killed a tiger which had attacked 
a flock of sheep and almost killed a little lamb. But 
sometimes these children are very unhappy. They have 
never heard how Jesus loves them and cares for them, 
so when they are playing, and it begins to get dark, 
they run in great fear for their home, for they are 
taught that there are evil spirits everywhere and they 
are greatly afraid of them. They are unhappy when 
they get sick, too. They have no kind doctors who 
know what to do for them to make them well, and 
their mothers do not know, either, how to care for 
sick children as our mothers do, so they kend for the 
witch doctor. This doctor believes that every one who 
is sick has an evil spirit, and they must do something 
to scare it away. This is done in some way that is 
painful to the sick person. It may be that he will put 
red hot irons on their body, or he may give them 
poison to drink, or a crowd of people may yell to try 
and scare it away. How differently we do! We think 
a sick person must be quiet and made happy if he 
wishes to get well soon. Wouldn’t they be happy chil¬ 
dren if they had a good, kind doctor to care for them? 
Or a nurse to tell their mothers what to do for them? 

Pedro does not go to school. His older sister has 
never gone, either, because there has never been a 
school near enough for them to attend. Their father 
and mother have grown up near the place where they 


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9 


live, so they have never gone to school. It would seem 
strange to us if our parents could not read stories to 
us, and so, many things that we enjoy, Pedro has never 
had given to him. There are some white men living 
in the cities a long way from their home, but they 
never had a chance to go there, and they have never 
seen a white man. Many of their tribe, who have seen 
white men, try to tell them that they are their enemies 
and will do them harm. 

Pedro’s father has been away from home sometimes, 
but he goes with a great many men of their tribe, to 
fight the men of other tribes. They do not think how 
sad the homes will be when they have killed some of 
the fathers and big brothers; they do not know how 
very wrong it is to kill people, for they have never 
learned of love and kindness as Jesus taught us, for 
they have never heard of him. The father is quite 
proud when he can come home and tell the children 
how many people they have killed. I am sure that he 
would not be happy if he knew how much he was do¬ 
ing to make other people sad. 

The White Man Who Loved the African People 

In England a long time ago there lived a boy who 
worked in a mill. He was a tall boy with blue-gray 
eyes and dark hair. The people who worked at the 
mill loved this boy, David, because he was so kind and 
did his work so well. David had just heard of some 
man who was teaching the boys to read and write and 
he, too, was eager to go to this school. His father told 


10 


Primary Folks 


him that if he did his work well through the day he 
would permit him to go in the evening. He learned 
very fast, and when he grew older his father said that 
he might go away to a city school. His mother got his 
clothes ready and his father walked a great many miles 
with him, so that they might save the money it would 
take to ride, to pay for his work at school. Folks at 
the school learned to love him, because he was always 
so kind and helpful. 

This boy, David Livingstone, heard of many people 
who had never known of Jesus, and he wrote to his 
mother and father that he would like to go as a mis¬ 
sionary and tell them of him. This made the parents 
happy, not because they wanted their boy to go so far 
from them, but because he loved Jesus enough to want 
to do hard things to tell some one else of him. 

He wanted to go to China, but there was war there, 
and he met a missionary from Africa who told him 
that there were so many people there who had never 
heard of Jesus, either. So he went with Mr. Moffat 
to Africa. It was a long journey, and they became 
tired very often of their ride in an ox-wagon or on 
horseback before they came to Moffat’s home. He 
then went to many towns where the people had never 
seen a white man. At first the natives were afraid, 
for fear he would do them harm, but Livingstone 
treated them in the same kind way that he had always 
treated people, and they soon found that he loved 
them and would not harm them. He taught them of 
the good God who loved them better than he could 





































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11 


love them, and that seemed so different from hearing 
of evil spirits that many of them learned to worship 
God. Livingstone told the parents that God did not 
want them to do such cruel things to keep the evil 
spirits from their children, but He wanted them to 
love Jesus and then He would keep them from harm, 
for He was the Good Spirit. 

Livingstone helped the older boys to make houses 
and gardens, and one day he told them that they were 
going to make a real church, where they could go and 
worship this good Jesus. They were quite happy, for 
he told them that they would spend a month up in the 
forest getting the kind of trees that they needed for 
the church. They took along what things they had to 
have for their beds and for their food, and were happy 
putting up their tent and getting things ready for 
camping. The people of the village watched them very 
curiously, for they had not learned that this white man 
was a great friend to them. One evening an old lady 
came to where they had put up their tent near a large 
tree, and told one of the African boys that they should 
not stay near that tree, for there was an evil spirit in 
the tree and it would harm them. The boy only 
smiled, for he knew that God was taking care of them, 
but he wanted to prove to the old woman that there 
would be no harm come to them, so he threw a stone 
into the tree. She feared lest the boy would drop dead, 
but when no harm came to him she thought that the 
white man was a god, and took care of him. They 
were a group of happy boys when they saw their 


12 


Primary Folks 


church completed and had their worship there to the 
God whom they had learned to love. 

One day the people of the village were very much 
frightened because a lion had come into the village 
right in the daytime and had taken a little lamb. The 
men all went to hunt for the lion for fear it would get 
a little child some time. They had hunted for a long 
time and could not find it, when all of a sudden it 
sprang from its hiding place and caught Mr. Living¬ 
stone by the shoulder. The natives rushed after the 
lion and saved Livingstone’s life, but he was badly 
wounded. There were no doctors to help him, so they 
took him to the village where Mr. Moffat lived. Here 
he received good care and was soon able to go to his 
work. While he was here he learned to love one of 
Moffat’s daughters, who afterwards became his wife. 
It meant a great deal to the native people to see how 
much this white man loved his wife and children and 
how kind he was to them. 

Mrs. Livingstone and the children went to England 
to live for a time, while the father traveled among the 
native Africans, trying to get them to love Jesus. He 
saw men selling their wives and children as slaves, and 
how much he wished that there were many people who 
would come and help him tell them of Jesus! He did 
not live long enough to teach many of them. One 
time the natives found him kneeling by his bed for a 
long, long time, and they went in and found that the 
good God whom he loved had taken him home. They 
wrapped his body and carried it for many days, that 



Livingstone’s Body Carried by His African Friends 

















13 


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they might get it to the shore and send it to England. 
But they loved him so much that they wanted his heart 
to stay in Africa, so they buried that there and sent 
his body to his old home in England. 



MEMORY POEM 


What can little children do 
For those who are lost in sin? 

How can they enter open gates 
To take the glad news in? 

Our feet are yet too small to march 
In step with the mighty throng; 

But is there no work we can do for Him? 
For our wish is true and strong. 

To every one He has given a part, 

And this is the children's share, 

To willingly give of their own to the Lord, 
And send it forth with a prayer. 


•Selected. 


QUESTIONS 


1. Draw a picture of Pedro’s home. 

2. How does the witch doctor differ from our doctors? 

3. Why did the African people love David Livingstone? 

4. Tell all the differences you can between the evil 
spirits which the Africans worship and the Good Spirit, 
God, whom we worship. 




















Moy Tsz Tong and Moy Tsoi Mei 









CHAPTER II 


The Chinese People 

Moy Tsz Tong and Moy Tsoi Mei are little girls 
who live in South China. They are so happy because 
they can attend school. People have thought for a 
long time that the boys of China should go to school, 
but that there was not much use in sending the girls. 
But there was a kind Christian man in America who 
said that he would like to send enough money to China 
to enable Moy Tsz Tong to go to school, and then a 
class of girls said they would like to send enough so 
that her sister, too, might go. 

Moy Tsz Tong’s mother has been very sad lately. 
The children’s father came to America a long time ago 
and made money, which he sent to them, that they 
might have clothes and food. He knew they could not 
read, and so he did not write very often—just often 
enough to assure them that he was well. One day he 
took sick and a man in America, who loved Jesus, 
wrote to them that their father—Moy She—had gone 
to a Sunday-school here in America and had learned 
to love Jesus. After he had been sick several days 
Jesus called him to live in heaven. The mother had 
to work very much harder, now that there was no more 
money coming from America for her. The missionary 
lady knew that she would be sad and was glad to tell 


15 


16 


Primary Folks 


her more of how much Jesus loved her and knew all 
about the sorrow that she had to bear; that He wanted 
her to love Him so that He could help her. And now 
every week the missionary goes out to their village, 
and the children and the mothers and grandmothers 
come to hear her tell of that kind God of whom they 
had never known. 

At the edge of the village there is a house full of 
idols, where the mothers of the village take turns in 
going and offering their gifts. They must do this to 
keep the evil spirit from their town. But when the 
mothers learn to love Jesus they know that the evil 
spirits cannot harm them, for Jesus has promised to 
love and protect them. Then they do not go and offer 
things to the idols any more. 

Near that same village lived Hen Lee’s grandmother. 
She worshiped a god whose name was Buddha, and 
while she was working at her home or going to town 
she would say the name of Buddha over and over 
again. One day Hen Lee asked her why she said it so 
many times, and she told him that if she said it often 
enough she would not have to be a cow and a dog some 
day, as all of the people who worshiped that god 
thought they would have to be. Hen Lee is now a 
grown man and has a boy and girl of his own. He has 
learned to love God while he has been in America, and 
he is glad that the missionary is telling his wife and 
children about Him. 

But there are many Chinese children who are not 
happy. A missionary lady heard a little girl crying 


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one day. She wondered what the trouble could be, 
but supposed she had been hurt while at her play. She 
heard her cry quite often that day and the next day 
and the next, and then the missionary found out that 
her mother had bound her feet up just as tightly as 
she could, so that when she got to be a woman she 
would have tiny feet, for the Chinese people think that 
is very pretty. We are glad that the government and 
the Christian people who go over there are telling the 
mothers it is better not make the little girls suffer in 
such a way. It seemed strange at first to see the 
American women’s large feet, when theirs were so 
small. As soon as a girl comes to the Christian school 
her feet are unbound so they can grow, and then she 
is happy and lively as girls should be. 

A missionary one day saw Chinese boys carrying 
heavy pails of water over their shoulders. He thought 
it would be nice for them if he had a pump as they 
have in America. So he sent for one. When the boys 
saw it they said that it would never do the work they 
had always done, but the missionary knew they could 
get water by just pumping it, so they set it up. When 
he took hold of the handle and the water really came, 
the Chinese people thought that he must be a wonder¬ 
ful person. They had a pony and wanted him to ride 
through the streets of the city, that they might cheer 
and make him a great man in the eyes of the other peo¬ 
ple. But the missionary would not do that; he told 
them he had done nothing but set the pump up. 

The missionary thought that it would be helpful to 


18 


Primary Folks 


them if they had a telephone; so he sent to America 
for one and had the Chinese men help him put it in 
place. Soon it was all ready and then he asked the 
Chinese to try to talk, because they had never seen 
anything like it. One of them stepped up to the 
’phone, but when they heard a voice they would not 
touch it any more. They did not see how another per¬ 
son could talk over a wire like that to them. 

A missionary mother loved her children dearly; but 
one day one of them became sick and died. Though 
the mother heart was sad she knew that her little one 
was with Jesus and that comforted her. One day 
several native women came in. They did not say any¬ 
thing about the death of the child before the mother 
mentioned it, for that would be very impolite. Soon 
the mother said, “ You have heard that we do not have 
our little girl with us any more ? ” And then they be¬ 
gan to wail and cry. The mother told them they should 
not weep like that, for her child was happy with Jesus. 
One of the Chinese mothers had buried her own little 
girl, and then the missionary told her that the two 
children were with Jesus, the Good Spirit of whom 
they had told them so often. This made the Chinese 
mother so happy, to know that her child could be at 
the same place with the white missionary’s child. This 
gave the missionary a good chance to tell them of the 
beautiful place—heaven—and of God’s care and good¬ 
ness to all who will love and follow him. 

The Chinese people think that when anyone dies 
they ought to keep the body as long as they can and 


19 


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have all the people that will, come to see them while 
the body is there, for that is a great honor to them. 
This is the way a great many contagious diseases are 
spread in China. When they go to bury the body sev¬ 
eral men walk by its side and throw out strips of paper 
all along the way. This is called “ devil money,” and 
they think that the devil will go after the bright pieces 
of paper and will not know where they have buried 
the body, and then he can do no harm to it. 

Once when there was an eclipse of the moon all the 
Chinese people gathered and made a great noise. It 
kept getting louder and louder, for they were trying 
to scare away the god that was eating up the moon. 
They came to the missionary, that he, too, should pray 
to the gods that this wolf god would not eat their 
moon, but he knew the eclipse was just a shadow and 
that soon it would go away. The Chinese kept crying 
until the shadow departed, and then they thought they 
had scared the wolf god away and they could have the 
moon again. 

A missionary went into a town one day and saw a 
string of cocoanuts hanging across the road. He 
asked, “ Why do you have those hanging at the gate 
of your city?” And they answered, “Oh, those are 
to keep away the evil spirits from our town, and then 
no harm or sickness will come to us.” Have you ever 
been afraid? If so, you know how these people feel a 
great deal of the time; but it is because they do not 
know that Jesus would protect them and take this fear 
from them. 


20 


Primary Folks 


MEMORY POEMS 

A Chinese Child’s Plea 

Oh, you smiling, white-faced children, 

With your lives so glad and free; 

With your homes and books and mothers, 

Do you ever think of me? 

You have all to make you happy, 

And to keep you free from fear, 

For you know a loving Jesus, 

Who is by you, always near. 

We would like to know your Jesus, 

And to serve Him rightly, too, 

And the love that will relieve us— 

We’re expecting it from you. 

Suppose you children were not saving, 
Money that you will give, 

If missionaries were not willing 
The Christlike life to live, 

Then we could not know your Jesus— 

Could not know He loves us, too— 

But we, too, will learn to love Him, 

Through the things that you will do. 

—Viola Eisenbise. 



The Children’s Pledge 

O dear little children, far over the sea, 

In China, or India, where’er you may be, 

In Africa, Burma, Korea, Japan, 

We’re going to help you as fast as we can. 


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21 


Your little brown faces are looking this way, 

Your little brown hands reach for ours today; 

And this is the secret we’ll tell far and wide, 

With you our best things we’re going to divide. 

We’ll send you our Jesus, He’s your Jesus, too, 

We wish all your mamas knew how He loves you; 
We’ll send you our Bible, then when you are grown 
You never will worship those idols of stone. 

The light that shines here you will see by and by, 

If to send it in earnest we little folks try; 

So we’re saving our money and praying each night, 
That we may help make your lives happy and bright. 

—W. F. M. S., of M. E. Church. 


QUESTIONS 

1. Why do the mothers offer food to the idols? 

2. Find a little shoe, three or four inches long, and you 
can see how small the shoes are that many Chinese 
mothers wear. 

3. Thank Jesus for His love and protection. Thank 
Him that we need not fear the evil spirits when we love 
him. 












CHAPTER III 

India, the Land of Idols 

India has been called the “ Land of Idols,” and we 
would think that such is a good name for it if we were 
to visit there, for idols are to be seen everywhere. 
India is a large country, in which are many beautiful 
valleys, mountains and rivers, that the people of India 
call sacred, and worship. There is the great Ganges 
River, which is supposed to flow out of the toe of one 
of their great gods, Vishnu, and many little babies 
have been thrown into the water by their own mothers 
as a present to the god. Though they loved their 
babies they counted it a great sacrifice to give them 
in that way, even if they saw them eaten by crocodiles. 
Many people bathe in the water every day and think 
that their sins are thus forgiven. 

Most of the people of India live in small towns, 
made up of one-room mud huts, where the parents, 
grandparents, children and the animals live. If the 
room gets too crowded they send the women and the 
girls out of doors to sleep, and the animals, especially 
the cows, are given the best place. The cow is called 
a sacred animal and often is worshiped. You would 
find very little furniture in their homes; perhaps a cot, 
a stool used for chair and table, and a large vessel in 
which to cook rice, and one or many idols. This is the 


23 


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Primary Folks 


home of the poor people, but the rich people have a 
better home. It is much larger and is almost sur¬ 
rounded by a veranda, which makes a pretty place to 
sit; but the women cannot sit here and enjoy them¬ 
selves together with the family and their friends; they 
have a little place, looking out on the back yard, where 
they must be. 

Nowhere in the empire do the people love and re¬ 
spect girls. When a baby girl is bom into a home they 
feel that a great disaster has come upon them. These 
girls are married while they are yet just little children, 
and if their husband dies, all the blame is put on them 
and they are hated by everyone. 

One of the principal products of India is rice, and 
the very poor people eat nothing else; it must be rice 
for breakfast, rice for dinner and then rice again for 
supper. They raise their own tea, coffee and fruits, 
and make their own flour. 

How happy we should be that we may worship a 
God who we know loves us! One whom we need not 
fear. There are millions of children in India who are 
not happy; they have to be afraid all the time of the 
many gods about them. Most of the gods are thought 
to get quite angry and to bring some calamity upon 
the people if they fail to worship them. They have a 
picture of a god pinned up in the kitchen. This is 
called the kitchen god and he, too, must be worshiped. 
Often there will be found on the door of the house a 
god who is supposed to be able to keep all of the evil 




UNLOVED GIRLS OF INDIA 



The Mother of the Child Is Only a Little Girl Herself 



Their Faces Show They Have Not Had Good Times Playing 

Unloved Girls of India 






at Mission Study 25 

spirits from entering the home and causing harm to 
anyone. 

Many different classes of people live in India and 
most of them worship idols, but very few of them 
know anything about the true God. The Parsee peo¬ 
ple worship the sun and fire. Often they get up before 
the sun comes, that they may fall down and worship it 
as it rises over the hills. And then at sunset you may 
see many of them worshiping, reaching down into a 
stream and holding a handful of water as a gift to the 
god. 

The Jains are people who think they have gained 
victory over themselves, which means more than if 
they had won a victory over cities. The name means 
“ Victorious ones.” The people worship bugs, lice and 
animals, and are very, very careful never to take the 
life of any of them. If we were to go into their tem¬ 
ples we would find many pigeons, which are kept and 
fed by the priests, and the people come there and wor¬ 
ship them. Many of the Jains give money toward the 
support of hospitals where sick animals are treated. 

The Mohammedans worship God and do not have 
idols; but they do not believe that Jesus was anything 
more than a Prophet. They believe that a man called 
Mohammed, who founded their religion, was a greater 
person than Jesus. Mohammed did not teach his fol¬ 
lowers to lead clean lives, as Jesus taught his people. 
He was not unselfish and kind and helpful as the Mas¬ 
ter we love. They are cruel to Christian people, and 


26 


Primary Folks 


they punish Christians to get them to say they will 
follow Mohammed. 

But the chief religion of India is Hinduism. It has 
more gods and goddesses than there are people in the 
United States, and these the people worship, with one 
great being—Brahm. This being has three manifesta¬ 
tions: Brahma, the creator, Vishnu, the preserver, 
and Siva, the destroyer. Each of these gods has a 
wife. Vishnu is held as the greatest of these gods. A 
story is told of a wise man who wanted to find out for 
himself which of these gods was greatest, so he went 
to Brahma, but did not bow down, and thus made the 
god very angry. He then went to Siva, and when the 
god spoke to him he did not answer. This made the 
god so angry that he would have slain him if it had 
not been that his wife pleaded that he should not. 
Last he went to Vishnu and found him asleep. He 
gave Vishnu a hard kick in the breast, and when the 
god awoke he begged the pardon of the wise man for 
being asleep, and said he was glad for the prints of the 
kick on his chest. He rubbed, very gently, the visitor's 
foot, and said that he hoped he had not hurt himself. 
So the wise man decided that Vishnu was the greatest 
of the gods, because he did not conquer his foes by 
harshness and cruelty, but rather by kindness. Vishnu 
is believed to come to earth in different forms; some¬ 
times as a tortoise, a fish or a man. 

Ganesha is a god of wisdom, and the schoolboys 
worship him by telling him how much they can eat. 
He is a very peculiar-looking god, for he has the body 


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27 


of a man and the head of an elephant. The story is 
told that one day Ganesha’s father became angry with 
him and took off his head. When his mother saw it 
she was sorry, and said that she would give him the 
first head she found, which proved to be an elephant’s 
head. 

The Hindus worship snakes. They have a temple 
where the people gather for this worship, but many 
of them cannot go that far, so they assemble around 
the places where they know the snakes have holes and 
there put flowers and food for them. If the snake 
comes out of the ground and eats while they are in a 
circle around the hole they think the gods are blessing 

them. A mother one time found that her little child, 
who was at play, was in danger of being harmed by a 
very poisonous snake. She did not make any effort 
to harm the snake, but waited until it went away and 

then, instead of trying to find it, so that it would not 
harm the child some other time, she often went to the 
place where she had seen the snake and left a chicken 
or something else for it, feeling very happy that the 
gods had thus blessed her little child. 

You would consider a monkey rather a queer object 
for worship, and so it is, but the Hindu people have a 
great temple where monkeys are kept and worshiped. 
Saturdays and birthdays are the most prominent days 
for monkey worship. But the cows are held as more 
sacred than the monkey. 

And then they worship holy men. Not men who are 
holy, as we know Christ to be, but men who put ashes 


28 


Primary Folks 


all over themselves, and never cut their hair, which 
becomes very long and matted. They put great hooks 
in their backs and hang from them, or lie on beds of 
spikes and torture their bodies in all sorts of ways to 
get sympathy from the people. They also worship 
sacred pools and streams and count it a matter of great 
blessing if they may die on the banks of a sacred river. 
Many people who journey a long way to worship these 
streams come the whole distance by falling upon the 
ground and then getting up and falling their whole 
length again, thus measuring the entire distance with 
their bodies. 

These people would all live differently, and they 
would be happier, too, if they knew Jesus, the Jesus 
to whom we pray. They can learn to know Him no 
more quickly than missionaries will go and teach them. 
God loves India. Jesus died for the widows and sinful 
ones of India, but there are so few of them who know 
about it. 


MEMORY POEM 

The Little Widows of India 

There’s a little girl over in India, 

No bigger nor older than I, 

Who never laughs nor smiles at all; 
I’m sure you wonder why. 

I just can’t understand, myself, 

How such a thing could be, 

For the little girls all over the world, 
Should be happy, it seems to me. 


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I think God wants us to laugh and smile— 

At proper times, you know— 

For He made the beautiful sun to smile 
On the wonderful world below. 

But this little girl, no bigger than I, 

So sad across the sea, 

Is a widow already—’tis true, they say— 

How strange it seems to me! 

I can’t understand it myself at all, 

A widow’s an outcast, they say; 

No home, no friends, and no one to love ; 

Just hated and in the way. 

She didn’t choose to be widow or wife, 

Or betrothed, our teacher said, 

But a widow’s a widow indeed over there, 

If husband or lover is dead. 

Unloved, unloving, they die in their pain, 

No hope when they go to their grave; 

So strange, don’t you think, that this can be, 
Since Jesus has died to save? 

Since the beautiful story of Jesus’ love, 
They’re just beginning to tell, 

In India’s darkened, sin-blighted land, 

Where the little widows dwell. 

I sometimes wonder, though I’m very small. 

If perhaps in a long, long while, 

God will want me to go and try to help 
The little widows to smile. —Ex. 


30 


Primary Folks 


QUESTIONS 

1. Why is India called the land of idols ? 

2. Are girl babies wanted in India? Why? 

3. How may the people of India learn to love girl 
babies? 

4. How sad our homes would be if our parents did not 
love the baby girls! Pray that the India mothers will 
love God, and then they will love the baby girls too. 


CHAPTER IV 

Some Who Loved God and Taught Others 
to Love Him 

The Story of Pandita Ramabai 

The families in India are not happy. There was a 
lady who had learned this through bitter experiences, 
for she had been a child wife and had lived in a home 
where she was not loved. For that reason she did not 
give her little girl, Pandita Ramabai, to be married 
when she was only an infant, for she knew that the 
child, too, would have just such an unhappy life. She 
was not an educated woman, but she realized that her 
little daughter would be happier if she could get some 
education. 

When Ramabai was still a little girl she went 
through the hardships of the suffering that accom¬ 
panies a famine. The day came to their home when 
the very last bit of rice was gone and they had to go 
to the woods. While they were there they ate leaves 
and grass for awhile, but soon the father died. While 
he was dying he prayed for Ramabai, although he 
prayed to an unknown god. The good God, whom we 
love, heard him and saved the life of the little girl. 

When the famine was over, Ramabai lived a happy 
life for awhile. She had a happy home, a kind hus¬ 
band and a little girl. One day God took her husband 


31 


32 


Primary Folks 


home and then she was a widow of India. She had 
known the customs all her life, that widows were hated 
by everyone, and that all of the evil that came to a 
home was blamed on them, but now she was a widow 
herself. She was mistreated, unloved and uncared for. 
She loved the women of India and wanted to do some¬ 
thing for them. She believed that if they could read 
and write they would be happier, so she lectured to 
many women and told them how much happier they 
would be if they would go to school. After she had 
worked that way for a long time she decided that she 
would start a school where the women could come. 

These women loved Ramabai, and she told of the 
God whom she had served, who loved them even better 
that she could. One day one of the pupils of her school 
desired to be a Christian. This caused a great deal of 
disturbance, because the people did not want the India 
people to be Christians. They threatened to tear down 
the school, but God protected them and no harm was 
done. 

Pandita Ramabai helped the girls in their work. 
She assisted them to get an education; she protected 
them and cared for them during the time of famine ; 
but best of all she showed them the way to love and 
worship God. 

William Carey 

William Carey was not a strong boy, so he could 
not do the hard out-of-door work, but he spent many 
happy hours studying the trees and flowers about him. 


























William Carey 







at Mission Study 


33 


When he was seventeen he worked for a shoemaker 
and afterwards had a shop of his own. 

Carey united with the church and was so earnest in 
his Christian life that the church called him to be a 
minister. It was not long until sickness came into his 
home and took his little girl. Carey felt sure he 
should tell the little brown boys of India the story of 
Jesus, and so he and his wife left their homeland, be¬ 
lieving that God would care for them. It was a great 
help to them to know that the people were praying for 
them. It was rather difficult for them to learn the 
foreign language, but they worked hard until they 
could talk with the Indian people. Because the people 
of India could learn to love God more quickly if they 
could read the Bible stories, Carey started a school, 
where he taught them to read and write. As they 
were busy at their work, sickness again entered the 
home and took a little boy. This saddened their hearts, 
for they loved to have their children with them, but 
they knew that the Father loved them and would com¬ 
fort and help them to bear the hard things. 

They worked with the people and told them of God, 
until one day some of the natives wanted to be bap¬ 
tized. This made the missionaries rejoice. When 
they had gathered around the water, Mr. Carey took 
his own boy into the water and baptized him first, 
using the English language, and then he baptized the 
native people, using the Bengalee language. 

Carey translated the English Bible into the India 
language so that all could read it, and when he had it 


34 


Primary Folks 


finished they met together and praised God. Carey 
helped the people to see that it was very wrong to offer 
their dear little children as sacrifices to the gods, and 
explained that the good God wanted them to live and 
love Him, and that would be the best sacrifice they 
could give. It was a custom, too, in that country for 
the widow to be burned alive when her husband died. 
This made Carey unhappy, for he knew how sad it 
must have made God. He told them how wrong it was 
and that the widow was not to blame that the husband 
died. How much happier they were when they loved 
the widows and helped them, rather than treating them 
cruelly! 

Adoniram Judson 

Adoniram Judson learned to read when he was three 
years old, and was very good at figures when he was 
ten. His father was a minister and wanted his son to 
work for God, but when Adoniram went away to 
school he formed the acquaintance of a man who made 
him believe there was no God. After this friend died, 
and Judson was not under his influence, he thought 
that surely there was a God, and became a member of 
the church. He was interested in mission work and 
wanted to give his life to it. He was imprisoned in 
France for a while and then went to England. He 
married Miss Ann Hasseltine, and together they took 
up mission work in Burmah. Judson believed that 
they should have some one to help them who could 
speak the foreign language and so he started in search 
for some one. He was gone seven months, for they 



Adorrram Judson 









at Mission Study 


35 


did not have the good ways of traveling that they have 
now. While he was absent the people at the mission 
and the country all around suffered from the cholera 
and many of them died. 

Dr. Price was successful in operating for cataracts, 
so he was called to work with Judson. Soon there was 
war, and Judson and Dr. Price, with others, were put 
into prison. This confinement lasted eleven months. 
During this time Mrs. Judson was allowed to go occa¬ 
sionally to the prison and take her husband food and 
clothes. After a while she was permitted to build a 
small bamboo shed in the prison yard, where she and 
her husband could meet and talk together. When Jud¬ 
son was released, they moved the mission to a place 
called Amherst. It was here that Mrs. Judson and 
their little girl died of fever. Mr. Judson felt sad and 
lonely, yet he knew there was yet so much work to do 
that the people might learn to know of Jesus, so he 
went back into the jungles to teach them. Other sad 
as well as happy things came into this missionary’s 
life, but he got his strength for his work from God 
and went ahead. In the face of danger and sadness 
he toiled for His Master, and many people were made 
happy Christians because Judson was willing to do 
hard things for God. 


36 


Primary Folks 


MEMORY POEM 

What I Can 

I can’t go out to the distant lands, 

Where the heathen live and die, 

Who have never heard of the children’s Friend, 
Above the bright blue sky; 

No, I can’t go yet to tell the news 
Of the Savior’s love to man, 

But I’m quite, quite sure that when God says “ Go,” 
I’ll go as fast as I can. 

I can’t give much, for I’m not rich, 

So I mean to collect the more, 

And also give what I really can, 

Out of my little store. 

I’ll give my money, my love, my prayers, 

And ask God to bless each plan 
That is made for the good of the heathen world; 
I’ll pray as much as I can. 

—Selected. 


QUESTIONS 

1. Why are women and girls in India treated even more 
■cruelly than animals? 

2. Write three things that would be different for them 
if people of India loved God. 

3. Read the story of a famine, told in the Bible (Gen. 
43). Who helped the people there? 

4. Why are missionaries happy people? 


CHAPTER V 

Children Who Live in Our Cities 

“What is that man calling?” said James, who had 
come from the country for a visit with his aunt, who 
lived in the city. “ That is Tony’s papa,” answered 
his aunt. “ Tony is a little Italian boy and his papa 
sells bananas from a cart which he pushes through 
the streets and alleys every day. Sometimes he takes 
Tony with him to help so that some day he, too, can 
sell bananas. Several years ago Tony and his papa 
and mama and sisters lived in that beautiful country, 
Italy. They had heard of some people who had come 
to America to make money, and they thought that if 
they, too, would come they could make money here 
faster than they could in Italy. 

“ It was hard for them to leave their home there, 
because all of the Italians think their country is the 
prettiest country in the world, and it is very beautiful. 
It took a long time before they got to America, and 
everything was so queer to them on the big ship and 
then in this strange country. Tony’s papa hunted 
many days for a nice place for his family to live, but 
all such houses in the city were owned by rich people, 
or people wanted too much rent for them and they 
could not pay it. One day they found several little 

37 


38 Primary Folks 

rooms in a large building where they could make their 
home. 

“ They had to go up a long flight of steps, and then 
up some more steps before they reached their rooms. 
The house was so large that the rooms on all sides of 
their part took the sunlight and the air from getting 
into their home, and that made it dark and unhealthful 
for them. Tony’s papa did not make as much money 
as he thought he could, and so it was decided that the 
mother, too, would go to work and help to earn money, 
for it took so much in Chicago for them to buy things 
to eat and to wear. The little children thought the 
hours were so long after they were out of school until 
mother came home. They were not old enough to keep 
the house clean or to get the supper, so when mother 
came home—already tired from her work—she had to 
toil all evening. Sometimes she did her washing and 
sometimes her ironing and sewing after the children 
had gone to bed. The only place she could dry the 
clothes on washdays was right there in the rooms 
where they lived. This made the house damp, but they 
had no yard or attic where they could dry them. 

“ This Italian family is very poor, but they are like so 
many of their people, they are kind to their relatives. 
If an aunt or cousins come to America and have no 
place to stay they say, ‘ Our house is very small, but 
you come and live with us.’ This means that some¬ 
times there are three or four sleeping in one bed, and 
yet they are happy because they are sharing with those 
who have no home.” 
























. 











* 








■ 
















The Ghetto—Jewish Stores 



A City Play Yard 

Kindness School of Civics, Chicago 








at Mission Study 


39 


“ Look at that funny store/' said Janies. “ Every¬ 
thing is hanging on the outside along the street.” 
“ Yes, that does seem strange to you who live in the 
country, James, but that is a Jewish store, and the 
Jewish people display all the things that they have to 
sell where people can see them. There are chickens in 
those boxes, pickles and horse-radish near them, and 
those are beads and things that the children like over 
there. See that lady? She is sitting on the edge of the 
sidewalk, trying on a pair of shoes. And that man is 
selling dishes. See those little black-headed boys play¬ 
ing? They are Jewish boys. They are full of life, 
and since they have no other place than the street to 
play, and there are so many children in one block, 
the street seems filled with them. They have to be 
very careful when they get interested in their play, for 
they are liable to be hurt by automobiles or the wagons 
that are passing. 

“ These children go to church on Saturday. When 
the sun sets on Friday evening their Sabbath begins, 
and there are so many things that they must observe 
because it is their Sabbath. They light candles, one 
for each member of the family, as a means of wor¬ 
shiping God. When they go to the church the men 
dare not take off their hats. They must not eat meat 
and drink milk at the same meal, and they never eat 
pork. One of their rabbis must kill all of the meat 
that they eat, so that it is killed in the right way. They 
must not write on their Sabbath. The more sons a 
Jewish mother has, the greater she thinks heaven will 


40 


Primary Folks 


be for her, but they love their daughters, too. They 
name their children after their ancestors. 

“ When a young man and woman become engaged 
the man’s father makes a feast for their friends, and 
then they break the dishes out of which the young man 
has eaten, which means that he does not belong to 
their home any more, but has a home of his own. The 
time of the wedding is the date of the greatest feast. 
This time the lady’s father and mother make it. They 
count this a great occasion for joy and merriment. 

“ It seems so sad that these bright boys and girls do 
not love Jesus as we do. Sometimes they are taught 
that Jesus was not even a good Man. They do not be¬ 
lieve that He was the Savior of the world, for they 
think that the Savior will come with a great kingdom. 
A little boy came one day to a mission where he had 
heard that the Jewish boys were meeting and a Chris¬ 
tian young man was telling them Bible stories. He ex¬ 
plained, ‘ My father said I could come if you did not 
use the name of Jesus here.’ The father did not want 
his boy taught about Jesus, for they do not love Him 
in their religion. But we are glad some of the Jewish 
people are learning to love him. We are glad to tell 
them that Jesus loves them and that they would be 
happier if they, too, could love him.” 

“ How these boys and girls would like to have the 
great, large place to play that you have,” said Aunt 
Jane, as they were going through some of the poorer 
districts in the city and were watching the children at 
play. “ See that little crippled boy ? His papa is dead 
























































A Back Yard Shared by Four Families Where Seventeen Children 

Play 



Do You See Any Room for Nice Grassy Lawns Around These 

Homes ? 














at Mission Study 


41 


and his mama has to work. So while she is gone and 
his old grandma is busy, he plays in the street. But he 
does not have a good place to play. Wouldn’t it make 
him happy to see a real flower bed? They have some 
of them in the parks, but Eddie cannot go alone, so he 
never has seen them. 

“ Jennie, the girl who stands beside him, is happier 
now than she used to be. Her papa was once so un¬ 
kind to them, not because he wanted to be unkind, but 
he would go with some men to the saloon, and then 
when he came home drunk and did not know what he 
was doing he was very cruel. Her papa is saving his 
money now and they hope soon to have a better home.” 

Isn’t it fun when seventeen children get together to 
play? But how would you like to have to play in a 
yard like this one? This is a yard where four families 
of children play. There is a wash on the line a great 
deal of the time, and of course they dare not touch the 
clothes, for this would soil them. How happy these 
children would be if they could see the beautiful fields 
and the flowers and trees that God has made to add 
beauty to our homes ! 

Margaret and Bennie were little children who did 
not have shown to them the mother love that little 
folks so much need to make them happy and lovable 
children. They lived in a great city, and, as in the case 
of so many others, they had no place to play. Their 
mother and father went to the saloon and came home 
drunk, and although they did not want to be unkind to 
the children, often they were very cruel. Their mother 


42 


Primary Folks 


died when they were yet small, and they went to live 
with their grandmother. She did not understand the 
things that make children happy, and spoke very un¬ 
kindly to them. She did not know what they should 
have to eat to make them healthy, and so gave them 
coffee and bread for their breakfast every morning, 
and when they came home from school for their lunch 
they had coffee and bread again. 

Some people from the country sent in money and 
asked a mission worker to give it to children who 
needed help. She took it and gave it to a milkman 
and asked him to deliver a pint of milk to these chil¬ 
dren every morning. The children were happy to get 
it and seemed to look better in a short time. Some¬ 
times the grandmother put the milk in her coffee and 
the children did not have any, but that was because 
she did not love the children enough to give them what 
they needed. 

When they became sick the grandmother said they 
were not ill, but that they had played too hard, and 
would have to stay in the house a day. You know 
playing is good for children, and it does not often give 
them a fever. Bennie is so thin, and is not growing 
big and strong as boys should grow. Bennie’s papa 
does not take the time to romp with him as boys like 
to play, and he has to associate in the street with some 
very rough, bad boys. Bennie needs wholesome food, 
and a great deal of good fresh air, but most of all he 
should have some one to love him and be kind to him. 
He is not old enough to realize how much God loves 


at Mission Study 


43 


him, but God could help his grandmother and his 
father if they would love Him. 

There are so many of us people living in this world 
and every one of us needs God’s help. I am so glad 
that God has said He wants to help everybody. So 
He will help Bessie and her home, and Tony and his 
parents and his sisters and all of the poor children who 
so much need His love. 


MEMORY POEM 

The Little Lamplighter 

The one who lights a single star 
In some one’s night, 

And then with thoughtful, watchful care 
Doth keep it bright; 

The one who plants a single flower 
In some drear place; 

The one who takes to some sad home 
A smiling face; 

The one who reads a cheering book 
To some tired eyes; 

The one who loves, and hopes, and sings, 
The one who tries 

To light the lamps that are gone out, 
And darkness near— 

That child the angels lead and love. 

Are you one, dear? 


44 


Primary Folks 


QUESTIONS 

1. Tell the story of Tony to your mother. 

2. In what way do our stores differ from the Jewish 
stores? Give two reasons why you think stores should 
not be that way. 

3. Make a list of five things you have about you that 
you could not have if you lived in a home with houses 
all crowded about it. 

4. Tell the ways in which you think God helps boys and 
girls. 

5. Do you know the story of Daniel? Write it. You 
know he was a Jewish boy. Tell what God did for him. 


c « 

■ 


CHAPTER VI 


How the Poor Children Are Made Happy 

“ Tell me about the poor children, Aunt Jane, some 
of those that we saw yesterday.” Aunt Jane pulled 
James’ chair close to hers and then told him about 
Bessie. Bessie was six years old, but she had to work 
as hard as though she were fourteen. They were a 
poor family, and the children did all for the neighbors 
that they could, to get a few pennies to help buy food. 
They did not have the things with which children like 
to play, as their mother often told them the money had 
to buy bread. 

They could not even afford a carpet in the best 
room, and the floor was so rough that when the mother 
tried to mop it, great splinters would break off in her 
mop. There were a few chairs and a stove in one 
room and a table and cook stove in the other. There 
were not enough chairs for all, so they used boxen. 
The curtains at the windows were old and torn. How 
often Bessie longed for something to make her home 
happy and cheerful! 

One day a lady came and said that a kind woman in 
the country had written that she would like to take a 
little girl into her home for two weeks. Yes, she had 
children of her own, but she wanted to make some one 
else happy. How strange it all seemed to Bessie! A 

45 


46 


Primary Folks 


great, large room in which to sleep, and a bed with 
such clean, white sheets that she hesitated about get¬ 
ting into it for fear she would make it dirty. The 
lady prayed that God would make Bessie happy while 
she was there; that He would protect her while she 
was asleep and while she was at play during the day. 
What good things she had to eat, and she really saw 
them growing! And that fresh milk; how delicious 
that was!—and it seemed all the better to her when the 
lady told her that those were the things God had 
planned to make children and everybody happy. But 
the best of the whole trip was that Bessie learned to 
love God, of whom she had heard so little before. 
Each summer the lady wrote that it was time for their 
Bessie to come again—and the little girl was happy 
to go. 

“We are going away over on the south side of the 
city today/’ said Aunt Jane one morning, “ and we will 
visit a vacation Bible school, where some of the poor 
children have a chance to learn more of the Bible and 
the songs we love so much. We shall see many inter¬ 
esting things.” 

And surely they did. There were several hundred 
boys and girls together, listening very intently to a 
Bible story. It was new to some of them and old to 
others, but all listened with new interest, for the lady 
who was telling the story loved the children and they 
knew it and liked to have her relate stories. They 
sang songs, and didn’t need their books at all, for they 
had learned the words by heart. Then some one talked 




















































































1. Handwork by the Primary Folks 

2. These Girls Will Not Be Dependent on Dressmakers 

When They Are Grown 

3. Notice the Boys’ Happy Faces Since Their Hands Have 

Something Useful to Do. 


















at Mission Study 


47 


to them about habits; how easily they were formed 
and how much harder to break the bad ones than to 
form them. They had prayer, too, and the children 
loved to pray, for they were being taught that God 
loves the children and loves to have them talk to Him. 

Then they went to classes, where the children did the 
most interesting things. Some of the older boys made 
hammocks; others were learning to sew; some framed 
pictures, and others were drawing them. Some were 
making paper flowers, some working with clay, and 
even the little tots were busy and happy making paper 
birds, butterflies and animals. 

“ Why don’t they do this for all of the poor children 
in the city? ” asked James. “ It takes a great deal of 
money,” answered his aunt, “ and it requires much 
time. There are so many people who think they do 
not have the time to spend doing these things. But 
we are glad that some people are willing to take time 
to help the children to grow into good men and 
women.” 

James was very much interested in watching the 
children, and more so than ever when he went home 
and his father told him that he was glad he had visited 
those places and had seen the poor boys and girls. He 
would help him make and save money, that together 
they might send some of it to help start a great many 
other schools like that for the children who did not 
have the chances afforded the country children. James 
was happier than ever, because he would have a part 
in helping them. 


48 


Primary Folks 


The snow was falling on Thanksgiving morning and 
James hurried to the postoffice and back more quickly 
than usual, for he had received a letter from Aunt 
Jane. He opened it and read it to his mother: 

My dear James: I wish you could have been with us 
today, as we went to see some of the poor children. How 
different we found their homes from what we would have 
found yours at this Thanksgiving time! Your mother 
always has such a good dinner for you, and you have 
your friends come and eat with you, but how sad we 
found some of these poor mothers! They love their chil¬ 
dren, and were unhappy because they did not have money 
enough to enable them to go to the store and buy things 
that they would have liked for their Thanksgiving dinner. 
But you should have seen one home while we were there. 
There came a knock at the door, and when the mother 
opened it there stood a group of young people. They 
said they would like to come in and sing for them, and 
also give them something. 

The mother was happy to invite them in, and after they 
had songs and prayer together, in which they praised 
God for all of His goodness, they handed the mother a 
basket of good things to eat and said there were some 
kind, Christian people in the country who had sent those 
things into the city and told them to give them to the 
poor people. The mother had to pay so much for every¬ 
thing she bought that she was happy when they explained 
that all of it was a gift of love to her and her children. 
They had no papa to share their joy with them, so they 
invited a neighbor, who was a widow, to come and have 
some of the good things. 

We were so glad that we had taken them the things 
that you children had sent to them, for we were all happy 
together. 


49 


at Mission Study 

Then we went back to the mission with the young peo¬ 
ple, for they said they wanted us to see the things that 
had been sent from the country by people who loved 
God, and who knew that when they were giving to the 
poor they were showing that they really loved God. And 
such a splendid sight as we saw! There was a box from 
a primary Sunday-school, full of the best things to eat— 
popcorn, apples, chickens, and things that children like; 
and there was fruit in the cans that some of the mothers 
had worked so hard to prepare when it was so warm last 
summer; they, too, wanted to make some one happy. 
There were potatoes that the fathers out in the country 
had planted and dug, and cabbage, turnips, onions and 
pumpkins, as well as jellies for the sick folks. 

The expressman brought a box of clothing that some 
Aid Society had made for the poor—and what a lot of 
nice things there were in that box! There were stockings 
for the children, waists for the boys, dresses for the girls 
and mothers, and the nicest warm comforts. You know 
how happy you are when it is cold to have plenty of 
covers which keep you good and warm while you sleep. 
We heard of a great many children who have to sleep 
with their clothing on and have their coats over them for 
cover, so you can imagine how happy they were to receive 
some warm bedding. 

An old grandma had fallen and been crippled for a 
great many years, and when they went to her home to 
take her a warm comfort they found her sitting by the 
window, mending her little grandson’s stockings. When 
they handed her the comfort there were great tears in her 
eyes and she said, “I am not good enough to have you 
do that for me.” Then they told her it all came from 
some good, kind people who loved God, and who wanted 
to help some of God’s poor. She was so happy and said 
that she knew she would sleep warmer now. She had 
been cold many times at night. Then they told her there 


50 


Primary Folks 


was no one who really deserved being treated so kindly 
by God, and it was just because He loves us so much and 
wants us to love Him that He gives us so many good 
things. We went to the mission, where many of the boys 
and girls and some of the parents had met for a real 
thanksgiving to God. There they were so happy and 
thanked Him for the kind people who had helped them. 

I am glad that you and your parents love the poor peo¬ 
ple, James, and we are so happy to hear of how you are 
planning together to help them more, for that is the best 
way I know of to be really happy. We will be pleased 
when you can come to the city again. How much better 
some of the children are because they have some one to 
love and help them! 

Lovingly, 

Your Aunt Jane. 


MEMORY POEMS 

Freely Ye Have Received, Freely Give 

“Shall I take and take and never give? ” 

It was not in the lily to answer “Yea”; 

So it drank the dew and the sunlight and rain, 
And gave out its fragrance day by day. 

“ Shall I take and take and never give? ” 

The robin chirped, “ No, that would be wrong.” 

So he pecked at the cherries and flew away, 

And poured out his soul in a beautiful song. 

“Shall I take and take and never give? ” 

The bee in the clover buzzed, “ No, ah, no.” 

So he gathered the honey and filled the cell, 

But ’twas not for himself he labored so. 


at Mission Study 


51 


“ Shall I take and take and never give? ” 

What answer will you make, my little one? 

Like the blossom, the bird, and the bee, so you say, 

“ I will not live by myself alone.” 

Let the same little hands that are ready to take 
The things which our Father hath so freely given, 
Be ever as ready to do a kind deed, 

Till love to each other makes earth seem like heaven. 

—Selected. 


Just Suppose 

Just suppose every boy and girl, 

Arising with the sun, 

Should try this day to do alone 
The good deeds to be done— 

Should scatter smiles and kindly deeds, 
Strong, helpful hands should lend, 

And to each other’s wants and cries 
Attentive ears should lend. 

How many homes would sunny be, 

Which now are filled with care? 

And joyous, smiling faces, too, 

Would meet us everywhere. 

—Selected. 


QUESTIONS 

1. What would you do if your mother could not sew, 
and she did not have money enough to get your clothes 
ready-made? That is the reason the girls in the mission 
sewing class are learning to sew, so they can make the 
clothes for their family. 


52 


Primary Folks 


2. Draw a picture of Bessie’s , home, with the furnish¬ 
ings, and then one of your own home. What things do 
you have in your home to make it cheerful that Bessie 
cannot have ? 

3. What things do you think the children see for the 
first time in their lives, perhaps, when they go to the 
county for two weeks in the summer? 

4. Did you ever give something to a poor child? Per¬ 
haps mother will let you help to give a basket of things 
to a poor family, and it will make you so happy—happier 
even than getting something for yourself. 

5. Jesus’ life was happy. Can you name some things 
that He did for other people that you think would make 
Him happy? 














































































































































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